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Various subgroups of CD8+ T lymphocytes do not only demonstrate cytotoxic effects, but also serve important regulatory roles in the body's immune response. In particular, CD8+ regulatory T cells (CD8+ Tregs), which possess important immunosuppressive functions, are able to effectively block the overreacting immune response and maintain the body's immune homeostasis. In recent years, studies have identified a small set of special CD8+ Tregs that can recognize major histocompatibility complex class Ib molecules, more specifically Qa‑1 in mice and HLA‑E in humans, and target the self‑reactive CD4+ T ce​lls. These findings have generated broad implications in the scientific community and attracted general interest to CD8+ Tregs. The present study reviews the recent research progress on CD8+ Tregs, including their origin, functional classification, molecular markers and underlying mechanisms of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To ensure the key structural performance in high-temperature and high-stress environments, thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are often adopted in engineering. The thickness of these multi-layer conductive coatings is an important quality indicator. In order to measure the thickness of multi-layer conductive coatings, a new measurement approach is presented using eddy current testing techniques, and then, an inversion algorithm is proposed and proved efficient and applicable, of which the maximum experimental relative error is within 10%. Therefore, the new approach can be effectively applied to thickness measurement of multi-layer conductive coatings such as TBCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Packaged foods have significantly expanded their market presence, with the utilization of vice-virtue bundles gaining momentum, particularly in the realm of vice-packaged foods. Consequently, understanding how consumers respond to vice-packaged food with vice-virtue bundles (i.e., vice-packaged food combined with virtue ingredients) becomes crucial. This research investigates this issue through four experiments employing a one-way between-subjects design, incorporating distinct stimuli and measures, and involving samples from diverse sources. In Experiment 1 ( n = 172), Experiment 2 ( n = 169), and the follow-up experiment ( n = 153), variance analysis, chi-square test, and mediating analysis demonstrate that consumers are more inclined to purchase vice-packaged food with vice-virtue bundles owing to the perception of it being healthier than vice packaged food with vice-virtue bundles. Furthermore, Experiment 3 ( n = 249) employs moderated mediation analysis, uncovering that both the heightened purchase intention for vice-packaged food with vice-virtue bundles and the mediating effect of perceived healthiness are attenuated among consumers with prevention (vs. promotion) focus. Beyond contributing to theories on packaged food consumption, vice-virtue bundles, and regulatory focus theory, these findings hold practical implications for packaged food marketing, promoting rational food choices, and enhancing healthier diets.

Hypophosphatasia (HPP) is a metabolic bone disease that manifests as developmental abnormalities in bone and dental tissues. HPP patients exhibit hypo-mineralization and osteopenia due to the deficiency or malfunction of tissue non-specific alkaline phosphatase (TNAP), which catalyzes the hydrolysis of phosphate-containing molecules outside the cells, promoting the deposition of hydroxyapatite in the extracellular matrix. Despite the identification of hundreds of pathogenic TNAP mutations, the detailed molecular pathology of HPP remains unclear. Here, to address this issue, we determine the crystal structures of human TNAP at near-atomic resolution and map the major pathogenic mutations onto the structure. Our study reveals an unexpected octameric architecture for TNAP, which is generated by the tetramerization of dimeric TNAPs, potentially stabilizing the TNAPs in the extracellular environments. Moreover, we use cryo-electron microscopy to demonstrate that the TNAP agonist antibody (JTALP001) forms a stable complex with TNAP by binding to the octameric interface. The administration of JTALP001 enhances osteoblast mineralization and promoted recombinant TNAP-rescued mineralization in TNAP knockout osteoblasts. Our findings elucidate the structural pathology of HPP and highlight the therapeutic potential of the TNAP agonist antibody for osteoblast-associated bone disorders., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

As one of the most toxic metals, Mercury ions cause serious environmental pollution and threaten the health of living organisms. Hence, we designed and synthesised a new near-infrared (NIR) ratiometric fluorescent probe toward monitoring of Hg 2+ based on quinoline-fused rhodamine dye. Owing to the specific spirolactam ring-opening reaction, the probe exhibits a ratiometric fluorescent change after treatment of Hg 2+ with increased emission in NIR and significantly reduced emission in visible region. The specific response mechanism and dual-channel fluorescence change allow the probe to have remarkable detection selectivity, fast response and high detection sensitivity. Moreover, with the properties of excellent cell permeability and low cytotoxicity, probe can be applied as detection tool for mercury ions with dual-channel ratiometric fluorescence imaging in living cell., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Local corrosion flaws (LCFs) widely exist in large diameter pipelines (LDPs) (e.g. steam, oil/gas pipeline) due to flow-accelerated corrosion, environmental corrosion, and material aging. Frequency-band-selecting eddy current testing (FBS-ECT), as an improved eddy current technique (ECT), has rich harmonic components in exciting signals as a pulsed eddy current technique (PECT), as well as more effective utilization of electromagnetic energy by selecting a frequency band. It is expected that FBS-ECT has promising applications in detecting and evaluating the LCFs in LDP. Therefore, a solution to the magnetic field of FBS-ECT for LCF detection in LDP is of great concern to reveal the features of the FBS-ECT signal and the parameters of the LCF. Extending our previous work, the semi-analytic expression of the magnetic flux density for FBS-ECT in regions 1 and 2 (where the magnetic sensor is located) is deduced according to the superposition principle and TREE, the computation accuracy is validated by numerical simulation; next, a semi-analytic solution to the magnetic field of FBS-ECT for LCF in LDP is proposed; then, the sampling distance in FBS-ECT is optimized by considering the magnitude of △ B z and the sensitivity of △ B z with the LCF depth; finally, a case study is carried out to verify the optimal strategy and find the mapping relationship between the radius/depth and the FBS-ECT signal. The proposed semi-analytic solution for the magnetic field of FBS-ECT is not only helpful to understand the theoretical relationship of the magnetic field and LCFs with higher computation efficiency but also lays a theoretical foundation to promote FBS-ECT to apply in the characterization of other flaws in metal components.

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection remains a serious public health problem worldwide; however, the relationship between cholesterol levels and CHB remains unclear. We isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy blood donors and CHB patients to analyze free cholesterol levels, lipid raft formation, and cholesterol metabolism-related pathways. Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-carrier mice were generated and used to confirm changes in cholesterol metabolism and cell-surface lipid raft formation in dendritic cells (DCs) in the context of CHB. Additionally, HBV-carrier mice were immunized with a recombinant HBV vaccine (rHBVvac) combined with lipophilic statins and evaluated for vaccine efficacy against HBV. Serum samples were analyzed for HBsAg, anti-HBs, and alanine aminotransferase levels, and liver samples were evaluated for HBV DNA and RNA and HBcAg. CHB reduced free cholesterol levels and suppressed lipid raft formation on DCs in patients with CHB and HBV-carrier mice, whereas administration of lipophilic statins promoted free cholesterol accumulation and restored lipid rafts on DCs accompanied by an enhanced antigen-presentation ability in vitro and in vivo. Cholesterol accumulation on DCs improved the rHBVvac-mediated elimination of serum HBV DNA and intrahepatic HBV DNA, HBV RNA, and HBcAg and promoted the rHBVvac-mediated generation and polyfunctionality of HBV-specific CD11a hi CD8α lo cells, induction of the development of memory responses against HBV reinfection, and seroconversion from HBsAg to anti-HBs. The results demonstrated the important role of cholesterol levels in DC dysfunction during CHB, suggesting that strategies to increase cholesterol accumulation on DCs might enhance therapeutic vaccine efficacy against HBV and support development toward clinical CHB treatment., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to CSI and USTC.)

The parameters from full-scale biogas plants are highly nonlinear and imbalanced, resulting in low prediction accuracy when using traditional machine learning algorithms. In this study, a hybrid extreme learning machine (ELM) model was proposed to improve prediction accuracy by solving imbalanced data. The results showed that the best ELM model had a good prediction for validation data (R 2  = 0.972), and the model was developed into the software (prediction error of 2.15 %). Furthermore, two parameters within a certain range (feed volume (FV) = 23-45 m 3 and total volatile fatty acids of anaerobic digestion (TVFA AD ) = 1750-3000 mg/L) were identified as the most important characteristics that positively affected biogas production. This study combines machine learning with data-balancing techniques and optimization algorithms to achieve accurate predictions of plant biogas production at various loads., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Electrochemical reduction is a promising technology to remove nitrate from water. The metallic composition and geometry of electrodes usually dominate the nitrate removal property. Based on nickel foam (NF), we prepared Cu/Pd bimetallic electrode using hydrogen bubbles dynamic template according to a two-step electrodeposition method (Pd after Cu). The micromorphology, crystal structure, and metallic composition were analyzed by using the field emission scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive spectroscopy (FESEM-EDS), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) instruments, respectively. 4.4 mg of Cu and 1.4 mg of Pd were detected on the prepared Cu/Pd electrode. The micromorphology of prepared Cu/Pd electrode showed a grape-bunch look with porous structure of two stage sizes (100-500 nm and 200-300 μm). 98% of the initial NO 3 - -N (100 mg/L) was removed under the potential of - 1.6 V vs. Ag/AgCl saturated KCl after 24 h of reaction when using 0.05 mol/L of Na 2 SO 4 or NaCl as electrolyte. But the concentration of produced NH 4 + -N was higher than 80 mg/L when using Na 2 SO 4 as electrolyte, which was close to 0 mg/L when using NaCl as electrolyte. The cyclic voltammetry curves of 1000 cycles and the long-term continuous flow test of about 200 h suggested that the prepared Cu/Pd electrode showed high stability for nitrate removal from water., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

A new fluorescent probe A with BODIPY as FRET donor and near-infrared rhodamine as FRET acceptor is constructed through disulfide bonding and use for ratiometric fluorescence detection of biothiol. Due to the efficient fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) from BODIPY donor to near-infrared rhodamine acceptor, Probe A only displays near-infrared rhodamine fluorescence (λ em  = 656 nm) under BODIPY excitation at 480 nm. The presence of biothiol leads to BODIPY fluorescence increases (λ em  = 511 nm) and near-infrared rhodamine fluorescence decreases since the disulfide bond of the probe is broken by biothiols, effectively separating the donor from the acceptor, thus inhibiting the FRET process. Probe A exhibits remarkable high selectivity and excellent linear relationship from 10 μM to 100 μM of GSH, with low detection limit as 0.26 μM. Cellular imaging experiments shows that the probe is predominantly present in mitochondria and has been successfully applied to detect biothiol concentrations changes in mitochondria of living cells., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Due to a harsh working environment, micro-cracks in metal structures (e.g., airplane, oil/gas pipeline, hydro-turbine) often lead to serious accidents, so health monitoring of the metals is of great significance to ensure their safe operation. However, it is hard to perform quantitative detection of multiple micro-cracks by a single nondestructive testing (NDT) technique because of their limits. To monitor for multiple micro-cracks in metals, a Traditional Eddy Current (TEC) and Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC) fusion NDT technique is proposed in this paper. In the proposed technique, the TEC technique is adopted to seek the locations of the micro-cracks in the whole of the metal, while the PEC technique is adopted to acquire information on the depth of micro-cracks automatically according to the location information by the TEC. The experiments indicate that the TEC⁻PEC fusion NDT system can localize the micro-cracks as well as detect the micro-cracks quantitatively and automatically; therefore, it can be applied in structural health monitoring of metal equipment or in picking candidate components in re-manufacturing engineering.